Really cool photos as always! Also liking that fiddleback what wood is on the monarch?

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Thank you! It's Osage, but this one is an Esquire. I originally wanted a matching set of Monarch for Bilbo and Esquire for Frodo for this project. But I'm really not financially equipped for all of the hoop jumping it would take to get the knives I actually want to use for this calendar project. Sometimes I feel like there is just no way in hell I'm ever going to be able to pull it off, but I've been witness to much bigger miracles than this before so I keep pushing forward. Hell even if I can't pull it off, I don't think it's really that big of a deal to anyone but me, and I'm having fun with it anyway even if it never gets published. Alayna and I get to eat meals in various places in Middle Earth, and that alone is a lot of fun for me. I did stress out over the calendar at first. I was trying to make it a tenth anniversary sort of thing for Fiddleback Forge, but after the divorce, some talks with a few drs, and then doing my first year as a single dad with a badly damaged leg and a whole lot of intense anxiety attacks, one night I finally had that moment when I hit the wall. I started hearing Bill Murray's "It just doesn't matter" speech from "Meatballs", something that has been anthemic in my life for years now. I started laughing my ass off, found peace with it all, and just quit stressing over it. If I finish it I finish it, and if I don't I don't, but in either case I am not going to beat my head against any walls to try to make it happen, and I'm going to have fun with whatever of it I do get done. Life is too short for a bunch of unnecessary sress and I have other things I need to finish that I have more control over. I am hoping to print a few scenes from it off on canvas soon. I have managed to learn a few things about what handle materials work best in what lighting from my perspectives so there is that. I haven't given up hope on the project, I'm just refusing to let it become part of my anxiety, and hindering other things I have a better chance of finishing.

Brian, you've done it again! Seriously man, I've been mostly lurking these days and your threads are what I open first. You're photos just keep getting better and better. It looks like you've moved into a a more well lit room for the LOTR photos. They're coming out great for sure!

Brian, you've done it again! Seriously man, I've been mostly lurking these days and your threads are what I open first. You're photos just keep getting better and better. It looks like you've moved into a a more well lit room for the LOTR photos. They're coming out great for sure!

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Thanks Jim! I'm glad you're liking the new direction. I moved my studio out of the basement and into what was meant to be the living room, to be in the light again. This is much more my style of living than staring at a plastic box. I do enough of that for me day job lol I need to get your package off to you soon, I'll do my very best to get to that this next week man. I think we've finally sorted the issue of my pay since one of the companies I design for was bought by another company. Doing my first year as a single dad last year was rough enough on its own, the doctors didn't make it any easier either. Then fracturing my leg and tearing tendons the first week of June made it even worse. So having my quarterly paychecks that had come like clockwork the preceding four years suddenly be anywhere from four to six weeks late with no rhyme or reason on which it would be was nearly maddening. It was friendships like yours that made it much more bearable, and that is greatly appreciated.

That font is awesome! It really is the cool detail that transports the viewer to another place. On the wider picture all of the interesting pieces draws my attention and each one wants to be gazed upon creating a random journey through the photo, nicely done! That esquire has character that looks like more than a years worth for sure.
On a side note if you could use my osage shank for part of your project I would be willing to mail it to you to use for a while and whenever you were done just mail it back. If it gets weathered or whatever it's not a problem.

That font is awesome! It really is the cool detail that transports the viewer to another place. On the wider picture all of the interesting pieces draws my attention and each one wants to be gazed upon creating a random journey through the photo, nicely done! That esquire has character that looks like more than a years worth for sure.
On a side note if you could use my osage shank for part of your project I would be willing to mail it to you to use for a while and whenever you were done just mail it back. If it gets weathered or whatever it's not a problem.

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Thanks David, I thought so too when I found it. I have a lot of fun with the bigger pictures, that's my favorite part, but it takes going close in to show any details about the knives. This Esquire has been my edc since last March when it was the knife I chose for a spiritual journey of sorts and an long exercise in having faith. It has traveled a lot of miles with me, and it has spent a LOT of time in the field with me doing photography of a lot of different things. As for the Osage Shank, I can think of a couple of characters and sequences of photos it would be great for. Let me put some thought into it and get the other things gathered for some of it and I'll holler back at you. There will definitely be a chance of patina, sometimes the knives lay in whatever they were cutting at the time for a few while I sort out the angle of the shot(s)m, and that process happens more than once per scene while i sort out the best shots.

Good stuff as always Brian. Really dig that font, going to have to check into that.

Thinking you might want to check out Cloudland Canyon near you. Might work as a Lonely Mountains type setting. Or the scene where Bilbo & the Dwarves are treed by Goblins & Wargs.

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Yeah, Cloudland Canyon and other parts of Lookout Mtn, The woods of Signal Mtn and most of Walden's Ridge, the fields of Charleston, The smokies, lots of places are mingled into my MiddleEarthishness There is a lot to work with in Cloudland Canyon